Doug Stephen is Politely Peeved

Maybe don't be such a shitty employee, kid

Edit: The “kid” isn’t directed at Comex. This isn’t necessarily his fault, and I’m not lashing out at him. He’s a talented developer. What I am lashing out at is the way the press seems to be giving him a pass. My fury is directed at the standard they seem to be holding him to, and not the standard he executed on. It seems, from his own words, that he didn’t feel like a good fit at Apple. The title and content will remain unedited.

So at least two news outlets (that I read) picked up some story about how famous former iOS hacker/jailbreaker/dev Comex is no longer an intern at Apple. The reason is, among other complications, because he didn’t respond to an email containing a renewal offer on his internship.

And everyone is making a big deal out of it, like it’s news. And while nobody has come out and said it, the subtle implication is that Apple were the douche-bags in this story.

What the fuck?

If my employer sent me an email containing a job renewal and I didn’t respond I’m pretty sure they’d dismiss me as “not interested” as well. And if I was running a company and this happened with one of my interns, I wouldn’t think twice about dropping them from payroll and saying “see you around.”

Seriously, am I losing it? We’re all adults here, right?

Look. Email is a thing now. We have to deal with it. It’s part of modern corporate culture. When I was just a full-time student and I had never worked at a real company job before, I was the kind of person who would only check my email every three, four, five, six days. I know what it’s like. It’s a weird thing to get used to. And when you go from receiving a few emails every few days to dozens of emails a day, it’s a little overwhelming.

Tough shit.

Learning to process email is, unfortunately, a skill that you need to develop to thrive as an adult in contemporary business. There are an infinite number of articles on the internet offering suggestions and tips and workflows that discuss how to deal with email, and until you start receiving upwards of 30-50 emails a day, the advice might seem silly. But it’s a real thing, and yes, it’s hard. It’s why business-types have such a huge boner for “Inbox Zero”. I don’t care what strategy you use to deal with your emails, but you need to learn how to do it if you want to be a functioning adult.

Just check the god-damn thing once a day. It’s not hard. It might take you an hour. But it’s not. Hard.

But based on Comex’s comments (in his words, “I forgot to reply”), let’s assume that he did check his email, and that he really did forget to reply.

Well then what the fuck does that say about how much value he assigned to the job? If I love what I’m doing and I knew my time was coming to an end, I’d be waiting on pins and needles for information regarding re-upping. He mentions in the article that there were other complications involved in him parting ways with Apple. Maybe he didn’t love the job. I still don’t understand why everyone is making such a big god damn deal about him not replying to the email. That’s his fault.

Recapping.

Email is a part of your life now as an adult. Deal with it. And I mean the editorial “you”, not Comex specifically

If you care about something, fucking act like it. You don’t “forget” to deal with something that’s important.

Your boss is not your babysitter. Your management team are full of people with shit to do, and if they offer you a job extension then it’s not their job to ask you if “got that thing they sent you”. It’s not middle school yearbook publishing.

Journalists: Get your heads out of your collective asses. I get that Apple slamming is the hottest haterade flavor going around right now, but come on.

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